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The Lighthouse team consists of a network of investment bankers, Private Equity-specialists, attorneys, tax consultants and accountants around its managing directors, Dr. Kay-Michael Schanz and Thorsten Müller.
All distinguish themselves through a broad and thorough long-term experience in Corporate Finance.
Dr. jur. Kay-Michael Schanz, founder and managing partner of Lighthouse, is an attorney with a renowned law firm in Frankfurt a.M. For more than 6 years, Kay has teached Corporate Finance (focussing on M&A, Private Equity and IPO´s) at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management as well as the Shanghai International Banking and Finance Institute. In addition, he lectures on seminars organized by institutions such as C.H. Beck und IFF. He is the author of a broad variety of publications on topics like Corporate Finance and Equity Capital Markets including the standard work “Börseneinführung – Law and practice of the IPO” (4th edition to be published in Summer 2012). Corporate Finance is also the focus of his activities as an attorney. Prior to the foundation of Lighthouse he was managing partner of Hauck & Aufhäuser Corporate Finance GmbH, Frankfurt primarily being responsible for the group´s Private Equity-/Structured Finance-activities.
Before, he spent some 3 years as an attorney with Schürmann & Partner / Coudert focussing on M&A, IPO´s and Venture Capital-financings.
After finishing an apprenticeship with Deutsche Bank AG, Kay studied law, finished his ph.d.-thesis in international financial law and completed a trainee-program with Commerzbank in Frankfurt und New York. After his return, he first worked as an assistant for the chairman of the supervisory board. Afterwards he joined Commerzbank’s Investment Banking department focussing on capital markets-transactions and derivative instruments before he joined the privatizations-/M&A-group. After some 10 years, Kay left Commerzbank and joined SBC Warburg, Frankfurt/London becoming responsible for the corporate finance-activities with industrial conglomerates and public entities.
Thorsten Müller started his career in 1992 at Commerzbank’s investment banking division focusing on privatizations and M&A-Transactions. From 1996 until 1998, he acted as personal assistant to the chairman of the bank’s supervisory board. From 1998 onwards he advised companies on going public transactions.
From 2000 onwards Thorsten worked for WestLB Panmure focusing on advising growth companies on funding and M&A topics. After being team director in the ECM/M&A division, he acted as Senior Relationship Manager to large corporate customers. As Divisional Head and Managing Director for Financial Services / Leasing in the Corporate Finance division he subsequently was responsible for a € 2.5 billion portfolio. From 2009 to 2012, Thorsten assumed responsibility as Managing Director for the build up of the family office segment in Germany and Switzerland.
From late 2012, he acted as founder and member of the executive board of Consultores Corporate Finance AG in Frankfurt. His focus was M&A and the funding of micro, small and mid cap companies. Since 2017 Thorsten Müller is a Managing Partner at Lighthouse.
Thorsten has a strong expertise in structuring and executing national as well as international corporate finance projects. He holds a degree in business administration, and has qualified as a Certified European Financial Analyst (CEFA) as well as a Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA). Since May 2022 Thorsten is CEO of DVFA e.V., the Association of Investment Professionals in Germany. He is a member of the Executive Management Committee of EFFAS (the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies) as well as co-head of the EFFAS Capital Markets Commission. Further on he is a member of the IMAC (Issuer Market Advisory Committee) of Deutsche Börse AG.